LOL! My grandmother was the principal of a very small, gang-riddled high school for a year when I was a teen. She said her greatest accomplishment was that the death threats (by letter) she received at the end of the year had much better grammar than the ones at the beginning of the year! :) Love today's wrecks!

While "appricate" may not be a word, it's closer to "apricate" (which apparently is--thank you dictionary.com!) than "appreciate".Apricate:1690s, "to bask in the sun," from L. apricatus, pp. of apricari "to bask in the sun," from apricus "exposed" (to the sun); perhaps contracted from *apericus, from aperire "to open." Trans. sense is recorded from 1851.Perhaps they are apricating to celebrate "school's out for summer; no more kid's"...

I'm an English teacher, and this makes me want to cry. Not tears of happiness or laughter as usual from this site. Oh, no. These are bitter tears of sorrow for the last, small shreds of Faith in Humanity that had remained in my soul. Those shreds just died.

I sincerely hope the wreckerators of these compositional catastrophes suffered ridiculous amounts of ridicule from those who picked up the cakes. (I also hope the cakes were free afterward, but that's a different issue altogether.)

I just don't get it. Back in the day when I decorated cakes at the ice cream store, we had to go through actual training before we could even write Happy Birthday on a cake. Do bakeries just hire anyone who can breathe now?

Oh, I am DYING of laughter over this guided tour of every teacher's nightmare!

One baker. Two different mistakes with an apostrophe. How "tragic". Yep, that's why you should pay attention in school, kids. You never know when you will "knead the knolege" being passed along to you!

I'm reminded of a political sign we saw a few years back. The guy running for Sherrif would "appericate" your vote! Now we can't help ourselves, we often say appericate instead of appreciate. My husband let it slip the other day at work and had to explain!

Shoot - wait, looking at it again with your caption, I think I'm the tool. Looks like there was a stealthy grader sticking it in the cake, right? Which was clearly your point in the first place? ahhhh Jen, always seventeen steps ahead.

You know, I actually know someone who's last name is Louck. Perhaps the "Good Louck" cake was just a play on their last name...though, we all know it's probably not. Hello bakers, hooked on phonics worked for me!

Former editor here. Can't stop laughing at this one, Jen! But then I laugh at work when I read management's horrid spelling errors and missing word emails. Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if those of us who CAN spell actually got recognized for it?

I home school my four children and I used today's post as a lesson in proofreading. Thanks for helping me out today! :) I can't believe that these bakers get away with these wrecks (kin ewe say dikshunaree?)

BTW: I LOVE you guys' blog but why are there ads on the side for "plentyoffish.com" and stuff? It REALLY annoys me and distracts me from the HILARIOUS comedy you do. Can you tell us why and if you can, stop it?Scarlett Robyn

I forwarded this to an advisor at the university where I work. She was a reading teacher for many years and is now in charge of those who are studying to become elementary school teachers. I hope she gets a kick out of it! =D

(and I hope none of these wreckorators were her students at one time, eek!)

I'm going to create a spell-checker for cakes that underlines spelling mistakes with a squiggly red icing line (just like in Word). If the Wreckerator wants to correct it, the spell-caker will ice over the word and the Wreckerator can re-write it.

If "LOUK" translates to mean "petrified chocolate chip dog vomit," I don't care HOW "GOOD" it is...I'm not buying it.

Now, I REALLY want to see that the part above the bear (Library cake) reads: "Place of the boox."That would be oh! todely perfek.I also love how they've viciously impaled those balloons with the candles on Albrecht's cake...(JAB! JAB! Take THAT!)Hey-maybe "appricate" means something evil...and the candle-stabbings are a kind of a w a r n i n g ~~~Ooooo...sinister....=^-.-^=Good grief--my WV is "feckor." Must have been donated by a HI skool gradjoowait..

Was it the content of the ad that offended you or the fact that we have ads at all? I'm more than willing to contact our advertisers and scream and yell until they take down an offensive ad, believe me. If it's the ads overall that are bothering you though, perhaps you could get the ad blocker on Firefox. It's super effective and you'd never have to see any of them again.

These remind me of my very own cake wreck...My parents were super proud when I graduated high school as the valedictorian. They ordered half of a sheet cake from our local Kroger (mistake #1) and asked for the words "Congratulations Valedictorian" in our school colors, green and yellow.

You know, of course, that it would do no good to provide dictionaries to the bakeries because you have to have SOME clue how to spell a word before you can look it up. And these people just don't have a clue.

For a fun look at the misuse of apostrophes and other punctuation check out the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves". It is hilarious while making its point.

--if ya don't but know it,"Herkimer" and "Vajayjay" jest HAPPENs to be my mostest favoritest names for two twins, no matter how many. In the whole, big, widey-wide WORLD...of any species.=^e.e^=Ah wanned kee-ids but ahm celebrate.

As a retired educator, I must say that I loved my kid's and I hope that none of there handiwork is apricated on this website! Too hilarious! What exactly are we teaching kids these days? It's certainly not spelling, or proof-reading, or trying a rough draft out first!

I don't know what "gracturations" are, but they sound more painful than happy!

Okay, this wasn't on a cake, but did anyone see Biggest Loser last week when Melissa went home? When Victoria showed her voting card with Melissa's name on it, she had written a little side note. I think it was supposed to say "Best @home," meaning Melissa could win the at-home prize for losing the most weight. But poor Victoria accidentally (?) wrote "Beast @home." A freudian slip, or a slip through the cracks of our education system?

Hmmm...Aren't "ADS" like, sorta, kinda, pretty much that thing where if they were on TV there'd be somebody yelling,, "And NOW, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSER(S)!" ?And then, like MAGIC- there's a commercial?And, hmmm, it seems as if those "sponsers" folks help keep your (let's say) show *on the air*...because, like, they get to sell THEIR stuff to folks who are watching YOUR show. And selling THEIR stuff thanks to YOUR show means that you are helping them, and they are helping you.

I've never posted before, but I had to for this one. I am a k-5 reading teacher and this just made me actually laugh out loud. That means a lot since I found out last week that I don't have a job next year due to budget cuts. Thank you and keep the funny coming!!

Ok I've been looking at this while in the quietest part of the library at school and trying to hold back the giggles is hurting. X-D I'm a public school teacher and a stickler for spelling and just...wow. Our public school systems ladies and gentlemen. X-D

My first thought when seeing "yu dib it" was....oh no, that decorator is dyslexic.....confirmed when the submitter said that the phrase had been written on paper. That whole copying from the board/paper to their paper/your cake is not very successful for someone who has dyslexia. Missing & reversed letters are common errors. Poor DQ kid...I don't think s/he could help it. If it's a kid, I hope the school noticed & at least tried to do something about it. If it's an adult who never got diagnosed...I'm so sorry...unfortunately, not everyone believes dyslexia is real.

Oh my if I had to grade these cakes they would all get an F for complete and utter lack of spelling. Lol I honestly looked at the cake with the poor handwriting that said your legole and nearly died laughing.. I think a cat could spell and write better than that! And someone tell me where exactly is Afraicia? I bet it's between Narnia and Hogwarts..

I'm pretty sure the "4" more years" thing was actually intentional. In Texas (and other states I'm sure) we have yearly tests, one of which is an English exam. Starting in junior high, they tell us to get a "4" on the writing part, because it is the highest score you can get. Every year without fail there are TONS of "4" themed sayings, like "may the "for"ce be with you", etc. It might be "4" the freshman class. If it's not, then I sincerely hope that there is a darn good reason for it.

1)"The teachers must be so proud"... Yes, because year after year, no matter what horrendous mistakes they see or hear, they tell the kids "You are so bright, we are so proud of you!"2) What the heck is that thing on the beach on the second 'Summer' cake?

Ok everyone, let's clear this up for the second last cake's wreckerator: "Yeah" is for when you're answering a question yes in a casual way. Like "yeah, I'll do it". If you want to cheer for someone, write "yay!". Yeah is never pronounced yay. Lesson over.

You guys should do a special entry about cakes that were messed up and what actually happened afterwards! We always want to know if the cake was free, who the heck was stupid enough to make that mistake, and what they thought when you brought it back (if you did.) Inquiring minds want to know!

DiPLOMA? Why, oh why, do people use a lower case letter in the middle of an upper case word? There is a store near us that has one of those illuminated signs with plastic letters. The man always uses an upside down exclamation point for an I, so his signs say "PA!NT" - except that my keyboard isn't Spanish, but you get the idea.

I'm sorry, but I just had to comment today! This post was absolutely hilarious! I burst out laughing more than once and reread a few of them, too. I just wanted to make sure you knew how much your humor is appreciated (appricated?). Thanks for all the laughs!

I used to teach at a university in Indiana. The faculty in my department would have a "creative spelling contest" every semester posted on our conference/coffee room wall. One semester the winning entry came from a course evaluation at the end of the term. Under "things I liked least about the class" one student wrote: testes.

As a primary teacher, I look upon this blog entry with a combination of fear and resignation. You see, I once worked in the bakery section of a supermarket and was constantly pointing out to certain cake decorators that "graduation" had a d and a t in it, for example. I can actually write better than half of the wreckers, since I often had to write on the cakes after their hours.Perhaps I will one day order a cake from one of my students - and then we'll see hoe well they can spell. Or at least copy off a piece of paper.

As sad as it is...I'd be willing to bet that "4" more years is a cake from MN or WI and is NOT related to school but rather to the Brett Favre annual retirement drama. It was a popular saying before he left Green Bay the last time and is now big in MN...all begging him to play 4 (a play on his jersey number) more years.

Did you get the bear cake submission from Wisconsin? I am pretty sure that this one is celebrating the Mukwonago library in Wisconsin... They had a whole big deal anniversary of the town deal years back and the bear and "place of the bear" slogan was emblazoned on everything.

I must say....I am totally addicted to this site. Nothing makes a lousy day better than catching a couple bad cake posts, bad "splling" and "gramar" and all. Now, my coworkers wonder why I'm turning red...trying not to laugh so hard at today's youth, who can't spell, or be "apricating" of today's "learnings."

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What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

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